Hockey Day Minnesota Gets Underway in St. Cloud

On Friday afternoon volunteers, organizers and sponsors were able to see all their hard work come to fruition when the gates finally opened.

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis says this is a great day for the city.

"We are excited to host this great event in our community. St. Cloud has a really rich heritage with hockey. You can go back to 1889 to the St. Cloud teachers college and all the teachers playing hockey here at Lake George."

While the city is taking center stage during the annual Minnesota hockey holiday, Mayor Kelis says they couldn't have pulled the event off if it was not for all the help.

"We could not be more thankful for all the people who helped put this together. The over 300 volunteers, the committee, the sponsors the organizations all made this possible."

To get this special day to Minnesota a lot of pieces had to fall into place, the last piece was wondering what the weather would be like.

"Winter is always a challenge in Minnesota but we really lucked out this year. To have these warm temps for the event really helps make Hockey Day that much better."